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Table of Contents | ||||||
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Dedication | v | |||||
Acknowledgements | ix | |||||
Author's preface | xi | |||||
1. | Introduction | 1 | ||||
2. | The atmosphere | 5 | ||||
2.1. | Troposphere | 6 | ||||
2.2. | Stratosphere | 6 | ||||
2.3. | Mesosphere | 7 | ||||
2.4. | Thermosphere/exosphere | 7 | ||||
3. | The problems | 9 | ||||
3.1. | Pressure | 10 | ||||
3.2. | Temperature | 11 | ||||
3.3. | G-loads | 12 | ||||
3.4. | Medical | 13 | ||||
3.5. | Operational | 14 | ||||
3.5.1. | Coffin Corner/Mach Tuck | 15 | ||||
3.5.2. | Ejection | 17 | ||||
3.5.3. | Inertia coupling | 18 | ||||
3.5.4. | Shock waves | 18 | ||||
4. | Pressure suit history | 21 | ||||
4.1. | Turn of the century | 21 | ||||
4.2. | World War I | 22 | ||||
4.3. | Pre-World War II | 22 | ||||
4.4. | World War II | 23 | ||||
4.5. | Jet/rocket age | 24 | ||||
4.6. | Space age | 25 | ||||
5. | The ancient would-be stratonauts | 27 | ||||
5.1. | Legends | 27 | ||||
5.2. | The Renaissance | 28 | ||||
5.3. | The Montgolfier brothers and Pilatre de Rozier | 29 | ||||
5.4. | The French Aerostatic Corps | 32 | ||||
6. | The early war years | 35 | ||||
6.1. | Civil War aeronauts | 35 | ||||
6.2. | Pre-World War I | 36 | ||||
6.3. | The scientists | 38 | ||||
6.4. | Pre-war aviation records | 39 | ||||
6.5. | World War I | 40 | ||||
7. | The roaring '20s, '30s and '40s | 43 | ||||
7.1. | The Piccards | 43 | ||||
7.2. | Soviet efforts | 45 | ||||
7.2.1. | USSR-1 | 45 | ||||
7.2.2. | Osoaviakhim-1 | 46 | ||||
7.2.3. | USSR-2 | 47 | ||||
7.2.4. | USSR-ibis | 47 | ||||
7.2.5. | USSR-3 | 47 | ||||
7.3. | American efforts | 48 | ||||
7.3.1. | "Century of Progress" | 48 | ||||
7.3.2. | Explorer II | 48 | ||||
7.3.3. | Wiley Post | 49 | ||||
7.4. | Italian efforts | 51 | ||||
7.5. | Summary of the interwar years | 53 | ||||
7.6. | World War II | 53 | ||||
8. | The experimental pilots | 55 | ||||
8.1. | The X series | 55 | ||||
8.1.1. | Bell X-1 | 56 | ||||
8.1.2. | Bell X-2 | 58 | ||||
8.1.3. | Bell X-3 | 59 | ||||
8.1.4. | Douglas Skystreak and Skyrocket | 62 | ||||
8.2. | Bell/Douglas X series summary | 64 | ||||
8.3. | North American X-15 | 64 | ||||
9. | The U-2 stratonauts | 71 | ||||
9.1. | The CIA | 71 | ||||
9.2. | Learning to tame the Dragon Lady | 72 | ||||
9.3. | Flying over the Soviet Union | 73 | ||||
9.4. | Flying over Cuba | 77 | ||||
9.5. | Flying over China | 79 | ||||
9.6. | Fifty years later | 83 | ||||
9.7. | NASA ER-2 | 84 | ||||
10. | The Blackbird stratonauts | 87 | ||||
10.1. | Historical background | 87 | ||||
10.2. | A-12 OXCART | 89 | ||||
10.3. | YF-12A | 97 | ||||
10.4. | M-21 | 103 | ||||
10.5. | SR-71 | 103 | ||||
10.6. | Blackbird summary | 110 | ||||
11. | The long wing stratonauts | 115 | ||||
11.1. | History | 115 | ||||
11.2. | USAF B-57 variants | 116 | ||||
11.3. | NASA'S RB/WB-57F | 120 | ||||
12. | Other unique high altitude aircraft | 127 | ||||
12.1. | British | 127 | ||||
12.1.1. | English Electric Canberra | 127 | ||||
12.1.2. | Avro Vulcan | 128 | ||||
12.2. | Russian | 128 | ||||
12.2.1. | MiG-25 | 128 | ||||
12.2.2. | M-17/M-55 | 129 | ||||
12.3. | German | 131 | ||||
12.4. | American | 133 | ||||
12.4.1. | F-104 | 133 | ||||
12.4.2. | SpaceShipOne | 135 | ||||
12.5. | Supersonic transports | 137 | ||||
12.6. | Perlan Project sailplanes | 138 | ||||
12.6.1. | The science | 138 | ||||
12.6.2. | Perlan I | 139 | ||||
12.6.3. | Perlan II | 140 | ||||
13. | Modern aeronauts | 143 | ||||
13.1. | Project Strato-Lab | 143 | ||||
13.2. | Project Manhigh | 144 | ||||
13.3. | Project Excelsior | 149 | ||||
13.4. | The Volga tragedy | 152 | ||||
13.5. | Project Stargazer | 154 | ||||
13.6. | Strato Jump I/II/III | 155 | ||||
13.7. | Red Bull Stratos | 156 | ||||
13.7.1. | Organization | 156 | ||||
13.7.2. | Capsule | 157 | ||||
13.7.3. | Balloon | 157 | ||||
13.7.4. | Pressure suit | 158 | ||||
13.7.5. | Recovery | 160 | ||||
13.7.6. | Mission Control | 160 | ||||
13.7.7. | Summary | 160 | ||||
13.8. | Hot air balloons | 163 | ||||
14. | Qualifications and training | 165 | ||||
14.1. | The pioneers | 165 | ||||
14.2. | Chuck Yeager's training | 167 | ||||
14.3. | A CIA pilot's training | 167 | ||||
14.4. | Test pilot school | 169 | ||||
14.5. | U-2 pilot training | 170 | ||||
14.6. | RB/WB-57F training | 171 | ||||
15. | Summary | 173 | ||||
15.1. | History | 173 | ||||
15.2. | Definitions of a stratonaut | 175 | ||||
15.2.1. | Pioneering scientists stratonauts | 176 | ||||
15.2.2. | Pioneering stratonauts in open cockpit aircraft | 177 | ||||
15.2.3. | Pioneering stratonauts in closed cockpit aircraft | 177 | ||||
15.2.4. | Pioneering stratonauts in balloons | 178 | ||||
15.2.5. | Modern stratonauts in aircraft and rocket ships | 178 | ||||
15.2.6. | Modern stratonauts in balloons | 180 | ||||
15.2.7. | Modern stratonauts in sailplanes | 182 | ||||
15.2.8. | Stratonauts killed while flying | 182 | ||||
15.3. | Summary | 185 | ||||
Appendix 1: Internet links | 187 | |||||
Appendix 2: Feeding stratonauts | 193 | |||||
Appendix 3: Area 51 | 197 | |||||
Appendix 4: Interesting trivia | 207 | |||||
Credits | 215 | |||||
Glossary | 221 | |||||
About the author | 227 | |||||
Index | 229 |
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